Fórsa is a member of a new coalition which promises to lobby the incoming government for a referendum to ensure housing rights are protected in the constitution. Other members of the new Home for Good group include homeless organisations such as Focus Ireland, Simon Community, Threshold, academics Rory Hearne and Senator Colette Kelleher and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

ICTU has set out its views in a comprehensive document asking candidates what they will do in the next Dáil to deliver a living wage and pension, strong worker’s rights, a just transition relating to climate change, public services, and investment in public and genuinely affordable housing. Fórsa also created a similar document with our public service champions' charter available to read here. More sectoral specific questions are available in the ebulletins which were published earlier this week.

In Northern Ireland, NIPSA trade union held a meeting with the finance minister, pressing him to deliver an above-inflation pay increase for civil servants. The union expressed anger to Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy on behalf of members who they say have had below-inflation increases for the last nine years. 

The Teachers' Union of Ireland expects a high volume of second-level schools to close during its one-day stoppage on February 4th. The warning comes after members of the ASTI were instructed by the union not to provide cover for their TUI colleagues when they strike next month over pay inequality.

SIPTU are launching their STOP67 campaign against pension age increases in Dublin this morning. A recent opinion piece in the journal heard from a pensioner who said signing on the dole after retirement was a 'horrible experience.'

And finally, in case your news feeds are saturated with #GE2020, here's an update from across the waters. Donald Trump's impeachment trial is currently underway in the US where his defence relies in part on arguments made in the precedent-setting trial of President Andrew Johnson more than 150 years ago; that impeachment requires a crime. While in the UK, Jess Phillips has endorsed Lisa Nandy in the Labour leadership race, after she herself pulled out as a candidate on Tuesday.

Today's Zen is sweet and simple with a collection of photographs from the Guardian for you to peruse. (I personally quite enjoyed the one of the police anti-drugs dogs.)